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The Alchemy of Happiness

Al-Ghazali
Translated by Claud FieldOriginal translation published 1909126 pages

Written after Al-Ghazali's own crisis of faith and years of ascetic withdrawal, The Alchemy of Happiness lays out a practical path for turning ordinary life into a spiritual discipline: self-knowledge, discipline of the soul, and love of the Divine. Claud Field's 1909 English rendering remains one of the most accessible introductions to Al-Ghazali's thought.

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The complete text is free to read online. Print and ebook editions are newly typeset, with corrected text and linked notes.

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Public domain in the US (published 1909, London: John Murray). Source text: sacred-texts.com. Source

About this edition

This Hidden Lantern edition of The Alchemy of Happiness is set from Claud Field’s translation, re-typeset for readability with corrected text, modernised layout, and endnotes linked in the digital editions. It runs to 126 pages in print.

Claud Field (1863–1941) was a missionary and scholar who produced accessible English versions of several Persian and Arabic classics in the early twentieth century.

Contents

All 13 sections are free to read online, in full, with no signup.

  1. THE ALCHEMY OF HAPPINESS
  2. PREFACE
  3. INTRODUCTION
  4. CHAPTER I THE KNOWLEDGE OF SELF
  5. CHAPTER II THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
  6. CHAPTER III THE KNOWLEDGE OF THIS WORLD
  7. CHAPTER IV THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE NEXT WORLD
  8. CHAPTER V CONCERNING MUSIC AND DANCING AS AIDS TO THE RELIGIOUS LIFE
  9. CHAPTER VI CONCERNING SELF-EXAMINATION AND THE RECOLLECTION OF GOD
  10. CHAPTER VII MARRIAGE AS A HELP OR HINDRANCE TO THE RELIGIOUS LIFE
  11. CHAPTER VIII THE LOVE OF GOD
  12. EDITORIAL NOTE
  13. ABOUT THIS EDITION

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